Pokémon: Pocketal Monsters
by Cyberwraith9
Summary: Two worlds once again hang in the balance...but not the two worlds that you think.  The Digidestined are all but helpless, until a new force comes into play...
1. Prologue

**Somewhere in the Digital World**  
  
Stupid Tai...  
  
Sora sat atop Jennai's overstuffed armchair with her face cradled in her hands. Tears rolled down her rosy, dirt-streaked cheeks like pouring rain, threatening to turn the inside of the digital enigma's ranch home into something rivaling its underwater surroundings. As it was, they were already soaking her favorite pair of jeans and soft pink blouse. Tears of sadness, tears of heartbreak, of rage, depression, and simple exhaustion...right now, the sixteen year old girl couldn't decide just what they were, and she didn't particularly care at the moment. She was too busy trying to figure out just what had happened, and why. Why? Why had Tai pushed her out?  
  
"Go back..." she heard herself whisper. "Further back."  
  
It had all seemed so innocent at first; Jennai had sent Izzy a short e-mail telling the children of a new riddle's appearance in the digital world. Some sort of tower, or castle of some sort. Naturally, it was their job to check it out, and with summer vacation's arrival, it was a simple matter of finding a working computer and opening a digiport up. Davis, Yolei and Cody were left behind, outside of the Digital world. Tai had been through enough bad experiences to know that a backup team wasn't a bad idea. Sora couldn't help but wonder if they would have made a difference. Something told her it wouldn't have mattered.  
  
Jennai himself had led them to the fortress. It was hardly necessary, though; whatever the new threat was, it could be seen for at least a hundred miles away. It had taken them a full two weeks just to cross the rough terrain that had appeared in the surrounding region of the towering structure, battling their way through Rookie henchmen, Champion guardians, a few Ultimates here and there...it was hardly anything new to them. Even Ken and Stingmon had been able to hold their own. It was only until after they had entered the fortress that they realized just how out of their league they were.  
  
Tai had done his best, and the rest of them had given their full support and confidence. Still, Sora couldn't remember the last time one of their battles had ever gone so very, very badly. She wasn't sure what had frightened her most. It wasn't the cold, sterile interior; the feeling of being trapped inside of an endless, soulless machine that threatened to devour your spirit. It was the kind of setting that had come from the back of her mind, where the nightmares lived. She had always loved the outdoors, and the fortress seemed to stand for everything she was against. Still, that hadn't been what had made her blood run cold...  
  
It had been the monsters.  
  
They weren't like anything she had ever seen, or ever wanted to see again. Izzy had tried desperately, but his Digianalyzer refused to give any data on the hoardes that had descended upon them, ravaging them like a bloodthirsty hoarde. Strange purplish rats, screeching birds, and walking mushrooms...those were only a handful of the ones she had seen before the Digidestined deleted them. It had been a hard fight, but each time the odds grew greater, they digivolved again and again. By the time they had reached the spires high in the clouds, the Digimon had each gone to the Ultimate level, with two exceptions: WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon.  
  
"It wasn't enough..."  
  
A cat. A small, pink, cute, flying cat with a long, wispy tail. That was what they found in the final chamber... How could something so innocent have been so vicious? The company the cat had chosen was worse: dragons. She couldn't be sure how many there were. It all happened too fast.  
  
"Too fast." she sobbed, "Too fast..."  
  
One or a thousand, they were all obviously at the Mega level...maybe even higher. They had made short work of the Digidestined and their Digimon, who were already exhausted from the battles beforehand. What followed was what TK always jokeingly called "One of our famous 'tactical withdrawls' from the scene." It seemed more like a hideous marathon, with the gift of life being the prize. It must have been a hundred flights down those damned stairs, with the ravenous dragons behind them every step of the way. The entire way down, she wasn't sure how many of them the dragons had gotten...the only people ahead of her were Kari and a few of their Digimon, and even then it was just barely. After what seemed an eternity, they finally saw the gateway, and beyond that, the sweet techno-nature of the Digital world. The only problem was, it was closing, fast.  
  
And then she had tripped...  
  
It wasn't her fault. One of the dragons had launched a furious attack, blasting a good chunk of the tech-castle's wall, sending it skewing right into her path. It wasn't as if she had fallen flat on her face. It had been more of a stumble, something that was harly worth mentioning on an average day. This time, though, it meant death. It should have been her death, but it wasn't.  
  
"Tai..."  
  
Yes. Yes, now she had gotten her train of thought back on track. Stupid Tai. Stupid, stupid, noble Tai. The door was nearly closed, and she had slowed her pace to regain her footing, when something from behind gave her a vicious shove through the door, catching the teen completely off guard. Sora managed to twist in the air as she flew through the rapidly closing portal, catching a glimpse of a sight that would haunt her dreams for the rest of her life; Tai, on his knees, giving her one last smile. He called out to her, but couldn't get his voice to rise over the thundering din of the battle. Nevertheless, Sora had been able to read his lips, which had only broken her heart further.  
  
*I love you!*  
  
Sora sobbed again, her wail carrying throughout the house with frightening volume. As Sora carried on, her tears drew the attention of three small, bizarre creatures that she had called 'friends' for some time now. They stood on the threshhold of Jennai's living area, watching her silently. "Tai...Biyomon..."  
  
"Y'think she's all right?" Gomamon peered around the corner of the bay door, scratching his reddish-orange fringed head with his massive foreclaw. The oceanic Digimon turned to his two companions, looking at them with worry in his large, feral eyes.  
  
"Of course she's not all right!" Tentomon cried out, waving his sharp arms and feelers in the air wildly. He quickly covered his mandibles, hoping that Sora hadn't heard him. "Of course she's not all right." the gigantic bug said more softly, "She's heartsick."  
  
Agumon scratched his head as well, more confused than ever. "Heartsick? Is she going to need an operation?"  
  
"I hope not." Tentomon exclaimed in earnest, "Jennai may be smart, but he's got a terrible bedside manner."  
  
The soft thudding of footsteps brought the attention of the Digimon away from the sobbing Sora over to Matt. The tall, lanky sixteen-year-old was yawning and working the kinks out of his shoulder through his tattered green army jacket as he approached the trio of troublemakers, eyeing them suspiciously. "What's going on?" he mumbled, rubbing the sleep from his eyes, "I was trying to catch a few Z's..." He recieved his answer with one look into the living room. "Oh no..."  
  
"Sora's crying again." Agumon confirmed sadly.  
  
Matt nodded, pondering. This was the fifth time since their battle that Sora had broken down. Five times in only two days. He had never seen her like this; Sora was always the calm voice of reason. She was the heart of their group...the love. This wasn't like her at all. They were all beginning to worry. Still, if crying is what she needed to do, then crying is what they would let her do. He didn't mind being pulled from his slumber. He just hoped that her emotional fatigue didn't wake up-  
  
"Matt?" Kari mumbled softly. She had emerged from her room down the hall of the ranch, just as he had. Dressed in her rumpled cutoff shorts and sleeveless T-shirt, she looked in about as bad of shape as the rest of them. "Matt, what's wrong?"  
  
"It's Sora."  
  
Kari glanced over, her face contorting with sadness. "Oh no..." The petite woman crossed the threshhold into the living area, plopping down next to Sora. She tried in vain to comfort the heartbroken teen, speaking to her in soft tones. "It'll be all right, Sora. We'll find some way to save them. I know we will."  
  
Matt quickly followed suit, opting for leaning against the back of the couch rather than sitting on it. He sighed, brushing a lock of sandy blond hair out of his eyes. "I'm not so sure. I mean, let's face facts; those guys had us out-gunned and out-classed. I'm not sure we could have beaten them, even with-"  
  
"Matt!" Kari cried indignantly, tilting her head towards Sora, who was becoming more upset.  
  
He looked between the two, becoming confused. "I'm just saying, we don't even know if the others are still alive. We might have to come to terms with the fact that they're...not coming back."  
  
Something inside Sora snapped. Everything about her that was calm and collected simply shattered, making way for despair and rage. "How could you even say a terrible thing like that?" she sobbed. Her features grew twisted with anger as she made a vicious leap for Matt. It was only Kari's last, desperate grab that kept her from throttling the other Digidestined. "How DARE you!" she roared, "Who are you to give up just like that? If Tai were here-"  
  
"Tai ISN'T here, Sora!" Matt shouted back. This seemed to strike a chord with everyone, quieting the room. The silence was broken after a few moments by Agumon, who abandoned his hiding place from around the corner. The three-foot dinosaur padded in, trying to encourage the disheartened group.  
  
"C'mon, guys...it can't be that bad. I mean, we're still here!" he exclaimed. "We just go back there, do a little Warp-Digivolving, and everything'll be hunky-dory, A-OK." Tentomon and Gomamon rushed after him, both becoming entangled in each other as they tried to squeeze through the door at the same time. "So cheer up!" Agumon finished his pep talk, grinning his toothy smile.  
  
Matt, who was on a hot-streak at the moment for pointing out the negative, despondently shot Agumon's theories of victory apart. "Sorry to break it to you," he said with arms behind head, "But our Digivices aren't exactly interchangable..."  
  
"Yeah," Gomamon exclaimed, shoving Tentomon aside and joined the discussion, "That's right! It'd be like hooking up a nuclear battery to a solar generator in the Starship Enterprise's warp core. The whole thing would go totally wonko in the Plutonium Dilythium Crystal Cells."  
  
"Uh...right." Matt scratched his head, trying to figure out exactly what the amphibious, mohawked Digimon had babbled about.   
"Anyway, we still don't have a plan, and all I can think of right now is 'Run Far, Run Fast,' and that's a terrible plan." He grumbled, hating to admit his own shortcomings as replacement leader. He and Tai had always been sort of a team when it came to battle: Tai wrote the songs, and he played them. The only problem was, these new Digimon on the block had just cancelled their latest show and stolen his best songwriter. Worst of all, he couldn't seem to stop thinking in music industry metaphors for battle. "We need to get the others here, and fast."  
  
"No can do, my young friends."  
  
The haggard, grizzled old voice of their mysterious host drew their attention once more to the door. There stood a wizzen old man of a mere three and a half feet, dressed in samurai robes and sporting a rusty katana on his back. It was rather ridiculous at first glance; the mere thought that this old man could be a warrior! The Digidestined knew better, though. Jennai, the ancient master of the Digital world-or servant, depending on which way you looked at it-stood his full height proudly as he addressed the children. Even with the virus he had received years before in a battle with Piedmon, he was still formidable. "I'm afraid that the digital gateways to your world are currently sealed...probably a courtesy of our new neighbors. It seems that Davis, Yolei, and Cody will not be in this fight."  
  
"The Digiport's closed!" Kari cried out. She could literally feel the last remnants of hope slipping out of her body, as if it was something tangeble that she had just lost. She slumped down into the couch, the glimmer disappearing from her eye. "Then it really is over..."  
  
Tentomon waddled over to Jennai, who was remaining motionless in the doorway. "Jennai," the gigantic beetle warbled worriedly, "Isn't there anything we can do? We can't just give up now..."  
  
"I'm afraid I don't have many tricks left up my sleeve, Tentomon." Jennai chuckled. He tossed his rusted katana off to the side, then entered the room and plopped down into an ancient armchair. Filled with holes and stains, the piece of furnature looked nearly as old as Jennai himself, if not older. He seemed to melt into the cushion, exhausted from his 'scouting mission'. "In fact, I can only think of one last thing..." Jennai left the children in suspense for a moment, waiting to see which of them cracked first.  
  
Surprisingly enough, it was Sora. "Jennai, what is your plan?" she asked softly. The tears were wiped from her eyes as she sat up straight, looking focused and ready for the first time in two whole days.  
  
The old man smiled; just as he had hoped, Sora was fine once she had been given a purpose...for now. Only time, her strength of heart, and possibly Tai, would determine her future from here. "I would think it obvious, child: We need more Digidestined." Again, he waited for their reaction with bemused anticipation, and again he wasn't disappointed. The children and their mismatched Digimon friends fairly exploded in an uproar, bombarding him with questions and indignant outbursts.  
  
"How can that be?"  
  
"You said the gate was closed!"  
  
"Where are they?"  
  
"Who are they?"  
  
"Why didn't you mention this earlier?"  
  
"Do they like computers?"  
  
This last question from Tentomon quieted the others of the group, and the beetle Digimon soon found himself being stared at curiously. "What?" he asked, shrugging his tiny shoulders. "I didn't think it would hurt to ask."  
  
Jennai chuckled again, holding up his hands to quiet child and Digimon alike. "Calm yourselves, peace, please! The gate is indeed closed, and it will be impossible to bring any of the existing Digidestined from your world to the Digital world."  
  
"But you said-" Matt cut in on his explination, and was instantly silenced with a mere gesture from Jennai.  
  
He smiled a secret, all-knowing smile. "I said the gateway to *your* world was closed, young one. There are many other worlds linked to the Digital world. Indeed, my world is a culmination of all their technology and data combined...not just that of your world."  
  
Kari was the first to recover. "But Jennai," she raised her hand as if they were in a class, "What about Digimon? If they're to be Digidestined, then where will we find the Digimon to become one with them?" Her thoughts drifted to Gatomon, her beloved battle-cat. Losing Gatomon was just as painful on her as losing Biyomon had been to Sora. Also as Sora did, she, too, grieved for her brother. Kari hoped desperately that Tai was all right. Knowing him, he was probably already planning their escape, assuming that they were still alive.  
  
"Fear not, child." his eyes glimmered with a knowledge that he could not yet share with the Digital world's saviors...not just yet. "I assure you, I'll have everything worked out by morning." He hauled himself out of the chair with a grunt and a groan, readjusting his spine after the maneuver. "For now, you should rest. By tomorrow morning, I should have everything ready."  
  
"But Jennai-"  
  
"Conserve your energy. You may not be able to fight in this battle, but the new Digidestined will still need your help." He turned to leave, exiting the room filled with curious children and baffled Digimon. They no doubt wondered how he could magically produce a new team of Digidestined. Truth be told, he wasn't sure how he could do it either. But Jennai always spoke the truth; he knew of a world where the perfect Digidestined awaited...the same world where their new foes hailed from, in fact.   
  
And the three children he had his eyes on would indeed need the help of Matt, Sora, and Kari...as much help as the Digidestined could provide.  
  
TO BE CONTINUED...  



	2. Digi-What?

[Sung to the tune of the Digimon theme]  
  
Poke Poke Poke...  
Poke Poke Poke...  
  
Pokémon Pokémon  
Poke Poke Poke...  
  
Pokémon Pokémon  
Poke Poke Poke...  
  
Pokémon: Pocketal Monsters,  
Pokémon Are the Champions!  
Pokémon: Pocketal Monsters,  
Pokémon are the Champions!  
  
Change into Pocketal Champions  
To save the Digital World  
  
Pokémon: Pocketal Monsters,  
Pokémon Are the Champions!  
Pokémon: Pocketal Monsters,  
Pokémon are the Champions!  
  
Pokévolve into Champions!  
Pokévolve into Ultimate!  
  
Pokémon: Pocketal Monsters,  
Pokémon Are the Champions!  
Pokémon: Pocketal Monsters,  
Pokémon are the Champions!  
Pokémon, Pocketal Monsters,  
Pokémon!  
  
____________________________________________________________________________  
  
The soft, gentle serenade of the evening forest played its hypnotic tune as a lone sullen boy sat atop a toppled tree. The trees rustling, the distant trill of Caterpie as they spun their melody of love and joy, the gentle stream nearby rushing past age-worn rocks and down steep waterfalls...it created a harmony of nature that seemed to play only for the boy as he wallowed in his own misery, mourning his loss.  
  
'How?' he asked himself over and over, clutching his head as if trying to stop his mind from repeating that single question for the trillionth time. 'How could I lose? Didn't I want it badly enough? Didn't I train hard enough?' The only answer came in the form of a flock of Spearow, their cries adding to the soft song of the forest. He wasn't sure what the answer was...maybe there was no answer at all. Maybe it was just meant to be. 'Maybe I was never meant to win...'  
  
A soft rustling in the bushes brought his mind away from the recent upset at the Johto League Tournament. With a sharp 'Pika!' and a toothy snarl, Ash Ketchum's oldest friend and partner sprang out of the bushes and proceeded to attack the boy with a playful, impish grin set on his tiny face. Ash laughed half-heartedly, wrestling with the mouse until he finally got his Pokémon settled in on his lap, purring contently. He knew what Pikachu was trying to do, and he appreciated it more than words could say.  
  
"So, those regen treatments made you feel better?" Pikachu nodded, arching his back as Ash stroked him gently. "Good." Pikachu had taken some nasty hits in the final round, and it did Ash's heart a world of good to see his companion back on all four feet.  
  
"ASH!"  
  
He looked up at the mentioning of his name and smiled once more. Unless his ears deceived him, he was about to get another visit, one that was just as welcome as Pikachu's. Sure enough, a slender, spry young redhead clad in a yellow tank top and an old pair of Ash's jeans came struggling through the thick underbrush. She was his second-oldest friend and partner...though "partner" wasn't quite the best word to describe their relationship. Their relationship; it still sounded strange to Ash. A year ago if someone had told him that he was to fall in love with Misty Waterflower, he would have called that person a liar to his or her face...and meant it, too. Now, though...  
  
"Hey, Misty."  
  
Misty dropped down onto the log with an exhausted sigh, leaning forward and resting her elbows on her knees. "I've been looking all over for you." she breathed heavily, trying to make up for the air she had lost running about the forest, shouting Ash's name.  
  
"Sorry," he replied lamely, not really sorry at all. "I've been thinking about...stuff."  
  
"Me too." she muttered softly. For a moment, there was an uncomfortable silence, accompanied, of course, by the song of the forest. Then, without warning, Misty blurted out, "Ash, I'm going back to Cerulean."  
  
Ash nearly exploded with shock and disbelief. "What?" he cried. Misty? Going home? Leaving him?  
  
"I'm going home, Ash." She couldn't even bear to look him or Pikachu in the eyes, instead letting her gaze rest on her ragged red sneakers. "It's been a long time since I've been home. I...I miss my family."  
  
His face grew red with anger and betrayal. "That's a lie and you know it!" he snorted. If there was one thing that Misty could not do, it was lie convincingly, especially to him. "You can't stand your family!" As cruel a statement as it was, it was also dead accurate; Misty loved her sisters dearly, but the four of them had never been able to coexist in the same room together for more than five minutes before some sort of fight broke out. "Misty, how could you? What about..." he sighed with bitter frustration, trying to understand she would do this to him 'now', of all times. "What about us?"  
  
Now it was her turn to be angry. She turned on him, her aqua blue eyes burning icily with intensity. "What 'us', Ash? There is no US! All we do is walk and train, walk and train, walk and train! There's nothing to our relationship!" When she saw the utterly devastated expression on his face, her conscience got the better of her, letting a little guilt slip through. "I'm sorry, Ash. I really am." Misty's voice softened a bit as the volume of her words sunk in. "Sometimes...sometimes excitement and adventures aren't enough. I need something more in my life."  
  
"Pika?" Pikachu first cast his curious eyes towards Misty, then up at Ash. Neither teen was looking at the other, and neither was saying a word. The silence between the two was almost deafening. "Pika. Pikachu! Chu, pika-pikachu!"  
  
"There's nothing left to say, Pikachu." Ash told his Pokémon bitterly. His eyes were locked out front. There was no doubt in his mind that if he dared a look at Misty, he would start bawling like a five-year-old. Ash's stubborn pride refused to let Misty see him cry. "She's made her decision."  
  
Brock chose that moment as his entrance cue, coming on to the scene with a steaming pot of rice held in his potholder-protected hands and a sense of bad timing that would make Jerry Lewis cringe with disgust. "Jeez," he kidded them jovially, "I've been calling you guys for the past ten minutes. Dinner's getting cold." His good humor was frozen in its tracks after he caught a closer glance at the pair of morose teens through his ever-squinting eyes. "Woah...you guys look like you just lost your best friend, or something."  
  
"I don't want to talk about it." they said in unison, which only annoyed each of them further. It was clear to Brock that something had happened between them, but he didn't want to pry. Besides, they would be bothering him with their problems soon enough, anyway. Instead, he looked up at the night sky, setting the pot down by his feet and unholstering his hands from the potholders.  
  
"Cheer up." he told them, "After all, it's a beautiful night." The sky always seemed beautiful at twilight, especially out here in the middle of nowhere. Brock always preferred the bright, twinkling stars of the darkened forest to the dim, pale stars of the bright, noisy city. However, the beauty of the unending universe received little more than a grunt of recognition from Ash or Misty.   
Pikachu, on the other hand, knew how to appreciate a beautiful sky full of stars, and lifted his head to do just that. In a strange twist of fate, he got so much, much more than that. "Pika!" A small, bright flash caught his attention. Pikachu pointed upward frantically, trying to get the others to notice the foreign light in the heavens. "Pi-kaaaa!"  
  
Brock tried to see what had made Pikachu so excited. "Oh, hey, I see it. Cool! Think it's a shooting star?" He got no reply, and shook his head in disgust. Looking back up at the ever-brightening spot, he remarked, "Well, *I'm* going to make a wish." Secretly, Ash and Misty both looked up at the falling star and made wishes of their own as well.  
  
I wish I were anywhere but here.  
  
I wish I could just get away from everything.  
  
"Done." Brock nodded in satisfaction, turning his attention back to the stone-cold rice. Then he stopped and looked back up at the falling star. It had become huge, almost the size of a quarter from their perspective. Stranger still, it didn't appear to be moving, only growing. "Uh...guys?" Ash and Misty seemed to be having a contest tonight; Who Wants To Be The Least Responsive? Unfortunately, Regis was nowhere around, and the "star" was only getting larger. "Guys! You guys! I think that thing is heading straight for us!"  
  
This got their attention, as they both looked up once more at the object of Brock's anxiety. It was even bigger now, and a faint whistling sound had begun to sound the alarm of its arrival in the distance. The whistling grew to a dull roar, and the falling star so heavenly any more, glowing a blue-white as it bore down on the trio. They could see it picking up speed, heading straight for them with destructive finality.  
  
"Scatter!" Ash yelled, diving off of the log and starting out in a dead run. Misty and Pikachu were quick to follow his example, with Brock hot on their heels in third place for the race of their lives. Brock's pot of rice was left behind, forgotten for the moment in place of their own mortal existence.  
  
With an earthshaking force, the fallen star ripped into the ground behind the trio, throwing dirt, teenager, and Pokémon alike high into the air. Curiously enough, the landing didn't bring the huge explosion they expected. Rather, the comet's crash had an unseen force that pulsed out the instant it hit.  
  
Ash picked himself up off of the ground and brushed the dirt from his black T-shirt and battered jeans. Spying his Pikachu moaning, flat on his face, he opted to help his pal up as well. "You okay?" Pikachu nodded, crawling onto Ash's shoulder. "Everybody else okay?"  
  
"Fine." Misty coughed indifferently, groaning.  
  
Brock struggled to his feet. "I'm okay." Cautiously, the trio approached the small glowing crater left behind by the falling star, shielding their eyes from the blinding light. After what seemed an eternity of inching forward, they reached the luminous hole's edge and, swallowing their fears, gazed down in unison.  
  
Ash wasn't certain what meteorites were supposed to look like, but he was fairly certain that they didn't normally appear like this; in place of the white-hot rock he had expected sat a trio of small metallic objects, resting unharmed at the bottom of the crater as if they had been placed there, and not thrown from orbit. If he didn't know better (and he didn't), he would have sworn that the devices were Pokégear. They looked exactly like them. That was impossible, though; Pokégear were insanely expensive electronic communication watches produced by Silph Co. They came from factories and black market dealers, not from the heavens. "What the hell?" The panels on the Gear-like machines darkened, leaving the three trainers with spots swimming in their vision.  
  
Throwing caution to the wind, Ash reached down to pick up one of the techno-meteorite gifts from God, but was stopped when Misty clamped her iron grip on his wrist. "Are you stupid, or just insane?" she cried out, yanking his hand out of the hole. "Those things just fell out of orbit, they must be a million degrees!" He broke her grip with a sneer and a disgusted snort, disregarding her sage advice. He reached down slowly, though, hesitant to vaporize his finger. He touched one of the objects...  
  
"It isn't hot." he whispered. Gently, gently, he picked up the device and held it in his palm. It was different than any Pokégear he had ever seen, with a slightly different user interface, and a yellow and black casing. "Wow..."   
Seeing that it wasn't dangerous, Misty and Brock each reached down, still with the same hesitation Ash had shown, and selected one of the 'Gears out of the hole. In the meantime, Ash continued to admire the heavenly piece of technology, turning it over in his hands. Nearly bursting with excitement, he undid the clasp and slipped it over his hand onto his wrist, snapping the latch back into place with a soft, metallic 'click'. The instant he did, the screen on the small 'Gear began to glow once more, though nowhere near as bright as before. "Coooooool."  
  
Misty frowned, slipping her own 'Gear onto her slender wrist. As she did, she couldn't help but wonder where they came from, or whom they belonged to. Each one was nearly identical, with coloration being the only difference; Hers was a pretty aquamarine, while Ash had a sort of Pikachu-pattern to his. She caught sight of Brock's dull brown 'Gear as he slipped it onto his wrist, clicking the clasp closed. Just as Ash's had, theirs began flashing after they had put them on.  
  
Moments after all three were in place, they ceased blinking and instead displayed a simple text message: "Digital Evolution Prototype Active. Initiating Gateway Transfer Sequence."  
  
"Gateway transfer? Digital evolution?" The words echoed from Ash's mouth as he and Pikachu scratched their heads in unison, staring down at the glowing, ominous letters. "What does that mean?"  
  
That was all the wondering Ash had time for before all hell broke loose. With a blinding explosion and a deafening crack of thunder, the heavens themselves opened up. It was like nothing they had ever encountered before on any of their journeys together; like twin waterfalls of pure energy flowing up instead of down, merging into a single vortex at some point in the distance...perhaps beyond infinity, or even further.   
A powerful force began to tug on them, trying to rip them from the Earth itself. It felt as though they were in a vertical wind tunnel, being ripped off of the face of the planet. Through it all, Ash somehow noticed that nothing else seemed to be affected by any of it except them. The trees and grass remained motionless, oblivious to the teens' plight as they and their Pokémon companion were drawn up into the vortex like dust mites into a vacuum.  
  
"AAAAAAHHHHHHH!" Ash screamed in terror as he tumbled into the sea of infinity, helpless to do anything but watch as Misty, Brock, and Pikachu screamed right along with him. Finally, the whirling, swirling forces became too much for his dizzy, disoriented mind. He caught one last, longing look at the forest before he succumbed to blissful unconsciousness, the image of his world being burned into his memory.  
____________________________________________________________________________  
  
Sora's eyes fluttered open, stinging at the greeting of the bright morning sky. She squinted, trying to shield herself from the harsh glare. "Huh? Where..." Her head was pounding, and her eyes felt red and puffy. Had she been crying? She rubbed her temples as she sat up, slowly, trying to remember where she was. This wasn't her house, and she wasn't on her bed. What was she on? A couch; she was on a couch...but where? In a room...what room? Whose room? Where was the room? A house. 'Duh,' she thought to herself disgustedly. It was obviously a house...wasn't it? No. No, this was a ranch. Jennai's ranch. She was on a couch in Jennai's ranch...and she had one of the worst headaches of her life.  
  
"I must've fallen asleep here last night." she groaned, trying to work the stiffness out of her arms and shoulders. Then she blinked, taking a look outside. Why was it so bright? The lake; it was gone! Jennai had somehow drained the entire lake. Hopefully he had managed to move the fish and other creatures that lived there out beforehand. Jennai was usually thoughtful enough to think of such things. She blinked again, trying to will her pupils to shrink faster. Down at the murky depths, the digital sun was filtered down to a soft ambiance. Now, with the murky depths less...well, murky...the sun was free to cast its warmth across the parlor through the great bay windows.  
Sora glanced out across the small landscape as she continued her morning stretch. The small, artificial lakebed looked almost like a desert without its water or aquatic inhabitants. Her eyes wandered the beds of soppy wet kelp and mossy rocks, until catching something unexpected. As tired as she was, she had nearly missed it; in fact, she had to check again, just to make sure she wasn't seeing things. Pressing her face against the glass until it was nearly flat, she squinted into the distance. No mistake about it, there was something out there! Something...or someone, maybe...was on the ground, wearing blue, white, black, and a small patch of red.  
  
"Hey!"  
  
She leapt off of the couch, her stiffness and headache forgotten for the moment as she tore down the hallway, shouting with excitement. "Matt! Kari! Jennai! Tentomon, Agumon, Gomamon...any-mon! Come quick! There's something out there!" Matt and Kari both emerged from their rooms just in time to see Sora fly past like a blur. "I saw something!" she shouted back to them as they ate her dust, flinging the door open wide and careening outside. Her friends exchanged glances and shrugs, then took off after her.  
  
Sora led the pack outside, making a beeline for whatever it was she saw. As she got closer, her hopeful suspicions were confirmed; it was a person! More accurately, it was a boy, and he looked as though he had seen better days. He was unconscious, and looked to be a bit delirious with his black matted hair plastered down on his forehead, which was covered in sweat and blood from dozens of tiny cuts. A red and white ball cap lay next to his head among the tiny rocks and sand, bearing only a stylized 'L' on the front. Each of his cheeks featured a deep, dark 'Z' mark underneath each eye, standing out like a beacon on his pale skin. Matt and Kari caught up to Sora as she knelt over him, examining him breathlessly.  
  
"Who do you suppose he is?" Kari asked, bending down to get a better look at the boy's face. Try as she might, she didn't recognize him from any of the Digidestined she had ever met. But then, hadn't Jennai told them that these Digidestined came from another universe? It was rather exciting, actually; she had never met an extra-dimensional teenager before.  
  
"I don't know." Matt had the same thoughts running through his own head. All the while, though, his mind also wondered at a mile a minute. 'Is this the help Jennai said would come?' he asked himself. He wasn't surprised when there wasn't any answer. Before he could think any more, something caught his attention out of the corner of his eye. Glancing over, he caught a glinting flash of orange-red on the sandy desert landscape. "Hey, there's another one!" He took off running, chasing his own rogue and leaving Kari and Sora to deal with the first.  
  
Kari leaned down to whisper in Sora's ear. "Y'know," she hissed mischievously, "He's kind of cute." Sora's face whirled around to meet Kari's, her complexion turning bright red as she blushed. She gave the younger girl a stern look, but only half-meant it. "Well, he is!" Kari insisted with a chuckle.  
____________________________________________________________________________  
  
Ash's mind came back to reality with a sluggish jolt. His entire body hurt, from his toes all the way to the tippy-top of his raven black hair. Just the thought of opening his eyes made them throb, so he kept them closed for the moment. Through the haze in his brain, he could hear voice starting to creep into his pounding head, voices he didn't recognize.  
  
'Fantastic,' he thought, 'Misty was right; I finally lost my marbles. I hate it when she's right.' He briefly felt a pang of regret, remembering his last conversation with Misty. Try as he might, he couldn't help but feel angry and betrayed, even though he knew, deep down, that she was right. He really, *really* hated it when she was right. It almost always meant that he was wrong.  
  
"Shut up!"  
  
"Hey, you're the one who can't take your eyes off of him!"  
  
It was strange...voices were supposed to talk to you, or through you, not about you. His curiosity overrode his aversion to pain, so he decided to open a single eye, just a crack. He was rewarded for his efforts with a thin stream of blinding light. Ash groaned and flinched, snapping his eye back shut.  
  
"He moved!"  
  
'Wait a minute...' Ash's muddled mind came to a dawning realization...he just wasn't quite sure what that realization was at the moment. Whatever it was, though, it was important. Gritting his teeth in the meantime, he flung both eyes wide open, greeting the blinding white light with his tired amber irises. For a moment, the world refused to focus. Shapes and blurs played across his vision, tantalizing him with a surreal world that seemed to mock and infuriate him.  
  
"He's coming around."  
  
The trainer blinked hard several times, clearing his watering eyes and clearing the clouds in his vision to a certain extent. At the very least, he could see...sort of. What he was able to make out surprised him a bit; hovering mere inches above him was a soft, feminine face. It possessed an earthly beauty, plain at first glance, but open and caring. "Misty?" he groaned his mind still befuddled. For some reason, he felt uncomfortably hot, and his head hurt quite a bit.  
  
"Who?" the face's lips didn't seem to move in tandem with the words they produced...or maybe it was just Ash's poor lines of thinking. He tried to get up, but was stopped somehow. He could feel a hand pressing gently on his chest, keeping him down. "Take it easy..." the face spoke once more, giving him a small smile.  
  
Ash panicked, doing just the opposite of the girl's suggestion. Later, as he thought about it (and apologized profusely for it), it was understandable. After all, he had been delirious, probably suffering from a head injury, and all after being sucked into another dimension. Defying every aching, protesting muscle, Ash shoved the girl off of his chest and staggered to his feet, stumbling like a drunk at three in the morning. The world was spinning, just as it had in that mysterious tunnel, and his head hurt even worse when he was standing.  
  
He felt another hand clamping down on his wrist. Shooting his bloodshot eyes to his right, he saw another girl, this one clearly younger, trying to get him to stop. "Calm down!" she cried out, "Everything's all right! We-"  
  
Still not thinking clearly, he tore his hand from her grasp. 'Charizard will teach these yahoos not to mess with 'this' trainer.' Ash thought. He reached down to his belt, searching for the flame dragon's Pokéball, and was more than a little surprised when he couldn't find it. Looking down in horror, he discovered that each and every one of his Pokémon was missing, disappeared right off of his belt. For the first time since awakening, he realized that Pikachu was nowhere around. "WHERE ARE THEY?" he roared at the younger girl.  
  
"Where are who?" the girl stumbled back, her voice quavering. Her soft eyes grew as large as saucers, dilated in fear.  
  
His eyes narrowed, locking onto her in anger and confusion. Then they sought out the first girl, who was now picking herself up off of the dusty ground. "You're with Team Rocket, aren't you?" he demanded. "AREN'T YOU?" Neither girl spoke, too afraid of saying the wrong thing and really setting him off. "ANSWER ME!"  
  
"No." Sora said at last. She held out her hands, palms up, trying to show that she wasn't the enemy. "We aren't with...Team Rocket." She walked forward, stopping a few feet in front of him. "We aren't Team Rocket. We...We'll help you find them."  
  
"Good." he sighed. He still didn't know who they were, but as long as they weren't Rockets, he didn't care. "I have to find them..." he stumbled, regaining his balance with a major effort. If only he wasn't so tired...maybe then he could do something. "I have to get my Pokémon back...gotta get 'em all..."  
  
"What's a Pokémon?"  
  
The high pitched, childlike voice emanating behind his back caused Ash to panic again. He whirled around, looking about with a wild, feral glint in his eye. The glint gave away, though, under the sight of the strangest thing he had ever seen. Standing behind him at a full three feet tall was some sort of Charmander...one unlike any he had ever seen. It had gold-yellow skin and large eyes set almost on either side of its oversized head, and nasty, long claws on its hands and feet. "Hello!" it waved at him, grinning with several rows of sharp, vicious teeth.  
  
It was more than Ash could take. With a tiny moan, his eyes rolled back into his head as he fell to the ground in a heap. As the world faded to blackness for the second time in recent memory, Ash could hear the squawking Charmander asking the pair of young women, "Was it something I said?"  
____________________________________________________________________________  
  
"Ash? Ash, get up."  
  
It was like deja vu all over again. This time, though, Ash felt a soft, downy mattress beneath him in place of the previous nightmare's hard, coarse sand. It had been a nightmare, hadn't it? "Misty?" he groaned, his eyes fluttering open slowly. He was relieved to see her face above him this time, and not a strange face like before. "Oh, my aching head..."  
  
"Take it easy." The redheaded Waterflower put a glass of water to Ash's lips, tilting it forward and letting the cool liquid contents dribble into his mouth and down his throat. "Everything's okay." she soothed him, patting his still-throbbing head gently.  
  
He looked up at her, giving her a weak smile in thanks as he soaked in the water, as well as his new surroundings. There wasn't much to the room he was in; it appeared to be fairly small, with only the bed, a lamp, and a small chair on the other side of the room for furnishings. Thankfully, the lamp was only emitting a soft, gentle light that went easy on his eyes. "Oh man, am I glad to see you." He propped himself up on his elbows, resting them on the squashed pillow behind him. "I had the weirdest dream." Ash couldn't help but laugh at the memory of the entire ordeal. "We all got sucked into this scary hole in the sky, and these two girls were attacking me. I tried to fight back, but my Pokémon were gone...even Pikachu." He rubbed his head, grinning slightly. It all must have sounded very silly to Misty, but she hadn't even snickered yet. "I must've gotten hit on the head, or something..."  
  
"Let me guess." Misty sat down on the edge of the bed, looking him straight in the eye with a deadpan expression. "One of the girls was tall, with sandy brown hair, about my age, only taller?" She went on to describe the first girl with alarming accuracy, then moved on to the second, younger girl, equally as descriptive. "And they had some sort of weird Pokémon with them, too?"  
  
"H-h-h-how could y-you know?" Ash was dumbfounded. His mouth flapped open and shut as he tried to search for words to match the absolute confusion he felt. Had Misty suddenly become a mind reader? Or...and this seemed far more likely, in a sick and twisted way...had he actually become as transparent as his companions had always kidded him as being? He held up his own arms, as if testing whether or not they were real. They were real, all right. Unfortunately, so was the yellow and black 'Gear strapped on his wrist, resting against his skin with the cool, heavy sensation of metal on flesh.  
  
"It wasn't a dream, Ash." She pushed off of the bed and headed for the room's only door, leaving Ash trying to sort out his grip on reality in her wake. All the poor trainer could do was stutter out half-words, looking first to her receding form, then to the device that had attached itself to his arm, then back to Misty. Only one phrase managed to squeak out of his confusion, summing up the way he felt almost perfectly.  
  
"Oh hell! Misty, wait!" he called out after her, throwing the sheets aside and chasing after her. He crashed into the door, which she closed right on his face, swearing again as he threw it open and ran after her down the hall. "Misty! Hold on!" he shouted, "Hold on a second! Damn it, Misty, what's going on?" He nearly lost track of her, making a few wrong turns in the twisting series of hallways. Wherever they were, it was large, sparsely decorated, and not at all easy to navigate if you didn't know where you were going. Somehow, though, he managed to stay only a few strides behind her, staying with her from corner to corner.  
  
After a moment that seemed to last an eternity, they made it through the series of halls and rooms into a large, friendly parlor. Part of the living room's charm came from its old, quaint furnishings; a battered wingback chair, a few couches, a pair of dirty, scratched coffee tables, complete with old rings from drinks without coasters, and the like. The other half of its friendliness, however, came from the bodies that rested in those furnishings, and the faces that accompanied those bodies. Some of the faces Ash could recognize, such as Misty's as she took a seat on the end of one of the couches. He was also relieved to see that Brock was with them, delicately sipping some sort of tea from a cup and saucer.  
  
Other faces were less familiar to Ash...but not entirely unknown. Next to Misty, on her perch atop the couch, were the two girls from his dream...which was clearly a stark reality that he didn't remember all that well. First was the girl who had pinned him to the ground. He was relieved to see that he hadn't hurt her, at least not badly enough to lay her out as he had been. She seemed different, though. No longer did she look at him with curiosity and wonderment, but instead her eyes betrayed a cold suspicion, as if she didn't entirely trust him... knowing at least half of what he had done, he couldn't say he blamed her.   
  
The younger girl sitting off to her left, though, wasn't nearly as unforgiving. She gave Ash a smile and a small wave, giggling slightly, as girls her age were wont to do sometimes. Her age...it was funny of him to think of her that way. She couldn't have been more than a year younger than he was. Maybe it was just that some of his...experiences...had aged him far more than he would have liked. After the death of his father, and the start of his journey two years after that, he had been forced to adapt and grow up pretty quickly. The girl didn't seem to have that problem. She seemed so...innocent, so young. Yet at the same time, something told Ash that she wasn't exactly as she seemed. There was something supernatural about her, almost like a hidden power. He would make it a point to keep an eye on her...if not for himself, than certainly for his own friends.  
  
The third one Ash had never seen before. He differed from the girls largely because...well, he was a boy, and not a girl. His head was topped with a thick mop of corn blonde hair, which seemed almost as unruly as Ash's own raven tangle. His eyes, though, were a startling Prussian blue, which seemed to glimmer in the light of the parlor. What's more, they were shifting about the room, as if looking for trouble. Ash locked eyes with the older boy for only a moment before the gaze was broken. He seemed to be carrying on a conversation with Brock, seemingly about the breeder's own experiences with Pokémon and their different attacks. Even though his focus was spread out over the room, he seemed genuinely interested in what Brock had to say.  
  
"Hi there!" the young girl was the first to speak, pointing to the wingback chair in offering. He gladly took it, still not feeling totally up to snuff. "You must be Ash." she giggled again, eyeing him from top to bottom. Although the inspection seemed innocent enough, she seemed to be sizing Ash up...but for what? "Misty and Brock have told us all about you. I have to say, you don't seem nearly as thick and pigheaded as they said you'd be."  
  
Ash's eyes narrowed, flickering over to Brock. His older friend only gave him an evil grin, taking another long sip of his tea. "Just give me a few minutes," he said slowly, "I haven't said much yet."  
  
The girl chuckled, crossing her legs. Then she blushed suddenly, as if embarrassed. "Oh, I'm sorry. I can be such an airhead sometimes, I swear. I'm Kari." she pointed to herself, then to the brown-haired girl on her right. "This is Sora."  
  
"We...met, didn't we?" Ash scratched his head, still trying to sort out the jumbled memories in his head. He must have taken a nastier fall than he had thought possible. "Before, I mean?"  
  
Sora nodded slowly, still keeping an eye on him. He didn't seem as dangerous to her now, but she still hadn't convinced herself that she could trust the newcomer. Besides that, she was having doubts that he could survive the job Jennai had selected him for...much less complete it. "That's right." she kept her voice low and neutral, careful not to let too much distrust slip into her tone, "Out on the lakebed. You shoved me."  
  
"Sorry..." he replied lamely, his eyes casting downward in embarrassment. That was one of the parts he 'did' remember.  
  
"Oh, she's fine." Kari waved Sora's moody attitude off, giving Ash another encouraging smile. "Sora's one tough cookie. Almost as tough as Matt over there." she indicated the boy sitting next to Brock, who gave Ash a nod in acknowledgement. "I imagine you have a lot of questions." she added.  
  
"You bet your sweet Pokédex I do."  
  
Kari blinked, exchanging glances with Sora for a moment. "I'm sorry...Pokey-what?" As hard as it was for Ash to fathom, they acted as if they didn't know anything at all about a Pokédex. Who on earth had never heard of the compact analysis wonders? Practically anyone who had ever met a trainer, anywhere, anytime within the last forty years, would know what a Pokédex was! Had they traveled back in time? "Anyway, I'd love to answer your questions, but I think there's someone who could do it a lot better than I could."  
  
"Indeed there is. And you just happen to be sitting in his favorite chair." A wizen voice from behind Ash's chair croaked, startling him, as well as Brock and Misty. Ash whirled around in his seat, expecting to come face-to-face with whoever had sneaked up on him, only to end up seeing air, dust, and the wall beyond. "Down here." Obediently, Ash let his gaze dip, finally spying the mystery voice's owner. He couldn't have been more surprised if it had ended up being Professor Oak dressed as a Clefairy with a pot of noodles ready for eating.  
  
It was a samurai. A short samurai at that, as far as Ash's knowledge of such things extended. He was old, as well, dressed in a black robe with pink trim that seemed nearly as old as he was. A rusty katana was sheathed sportingly on his back, at rest for the moment but ready for battle should the need arise. The old man had a friendly air about him, smiling as he circled around the chair so he could see the teens, and be seen in turn. "Greetings, my young friends! I would like to wish you all a warm welcome to the Digital World. I wish it were under better circumstances that we brought you here, but we unfortunately had no choice in the matter."  
  
"Digi-what?" Ash blurted out.  
  
"Hold on!" Brock set his tea down gently, his hands shaking with excitement, fear, and confusion, all at the same time. "You mean we're in another world?" The old man nodded, only upsetting him further. "Just who are you, and what kind of joke is this?"  
  
"This is no joke, friend." the old man assured him. "Let me explain: I am Jennai, a guardian of the Digital World. You have been pulled, through a great effort on my part, to a dimension that exists between all others simultaneously, while still remaining a world in and of itself. Creatures not unlike your Pokémon populate this world, this dimension. Our dimension. We, however, call our creatures Digimon. It's a bit of an acronym; 'Digi'," he elaborated, "Meaning digital, and 'Mon', meaning monster."  
  
"Digi-what?" Ash asked again. Despite what the old man had told them, he was no more certain of where or when he was, or what he was doing there, or even how to get back to where he had been, if it was even possible at this point.  
  
"Perhaps it will be easier to show you, rather than to tell you." He put a pair of fingers to his lips, whistling sharply. "It's all right; you can come out now!" he called into the next room. There was a brief moment of pause before a stirring in the next room came as response. Slowly, and very hesitantly, three small...creatures...shuffled out of the darkened room and into the parlor, looking nervously at Ash, Misty, and Brock. They were three of the weirdest Pokémon any of the children had ever seen, most likely because they weren't Pokémon at all.   
  
The first was a buzzing, gigantic beetle. His shell was a bright neon reddish pink, with conic spines extending from the top. The beetle swooped around the edge of the room, coming to a halt right in front of Ash's face. Ash stared down the beast, eye to multi-faceted eye, tooth to block-like mandible. "Hi!" Despite his bizarre appearance, the bug's voice was nothing but friendly, if a little high-pitched and wobbly. "My name is Tento-mon! Pleased to meet you." He buzzed in a little closer, raising his clawed appendage as if to whisper something. "Do you like computers?"  
  
Misty twitched, taking a sharp breath at the appearance of the hideous bug. It took a lot out of her to keep the burning desire to scream trapped in her throat. Her attention was drawn away from the bug when she felt something tapping on her foot. Looking down, Misty saw one of the cutest creatures she had ever laid eyes on before; he looked a bit like a seal, with flippers for hind legs. Beyond that, though, he was like nothing she had ever seen. He possessed enormous forepaws, each with three enormous, dagger claws on the end. His eyes were wide and smiling, as was his open mouth that reeked of fish. "Hey! I'm Gomamon. It's ver nice to meet you!"  
  
"Hi...Gomamon..." Misty said slowly. She reached down, stroking the soft ridge of red hair on his head with only a bit of hesitation. The aquatic Digimon sighed happily, cozying up to her leg as she scratched behind his floppy white ears. Misty couldn't help but chuckle. "Y'know, you're awfully friendly for a monster."  
  
Meanwhile, the strange lizard had padded over to Ash, and extended its claw at the boy. Instinctively, Ash pulled away, thinking that he was under attack. After the beast had left the claw hanging for a moment, though, Ash realized that it wanted him to grab it. He did so tentatively, and was a little surprised when it began to pump its paw up and down in a handshake. "We met earlier. My name is Agumon!"  
  
Ash gulped, trying to swallow his anxiety. In all his experiences as a trainer, he had been able to come to at least one stark conclusion about Pokémon; any Pokémon that could talk usually meant trouble. So far, that rule of thumb hadn't steered him wrong. 'This isn't a Pokémon, though.' a small voice inside his head reminded him, 'It's a Digimon...whatever that means.' Ash returned the handshake, trying to match Agumon's impressive grip. "Sorry, I'm a little fuzzy on what's been happening today..."  
  
"Aw," Agumon waved off his apology with a toothy grin, "That's just the concussion talking."  
  
Jennai cleared his throat, calling their attention away from the fantastic new monsters. "I'm afraid what you're seeing now is the best that this world has to offer." the old man lectured to them, setting a much more morose tone to the room. "The enemies that face you will be much worse, and far less affable then our friends here."  
  
"So how the heck are we supposed to fight these bastards?" Brock asked, absently rubbing his fist. He was growing tired of all of this nonsense and hullabaloo about saving the world. All he could think about right now was getting out of this facsimile of a real world and back to his dimension. As selfish as it was, Brock didn't see anything wrong with wanting to go home. "We don't even have our Pokémon anymore. Besides, from what you tell us," he added, "These 'new guys' are too strong for your own team. What makes you think we can do any better?"  
  
"Oh great," Sora muttered darkly, barely loud enough to be heard, "It's another Matt."  
  
Jennai simply smiled his enigmatic smile, something that had infuriated the Digidestined for years, and continued on to work over the nerves of the three Trainers. "Everything will become clear in time. In the meantime, I have something else to show you."  
  
"More new monsters?" Misty asked, perking up. She was fascinated by the creatures in this new world, even though she had only seen three examples so far.  
  
"Monsters yes," Jennai continued to smile, "But certainly not new." The old man snapped his fingers again...  
____________________________________________________________________________  
  
A tall, dusty brown warrior stood on the ridge of Jennai's emptied artificial lake, looking down upon the ranch home with a spark of anticipation in his soulless black eyes. Ever since his conception only a few weeks ago, he had begged the Master to allow him to capture the Digidestined himself. There was no soldier more capable, more blindingly loyal than he was. There was no one who deserved the glory of such a victory more than he was.  
  
He absently rubbed a spiked, rocky fist into his palm, his tendons already flaring for the combat to come. The ridges on his back extended to their full length, razor-sharp and capable of impaling even Champion-class Digimon. He knew; he had done so many times in their first strike upon the weak, pathetic Digital World.  
  
"Sandslashmon!"  
  
He looked down, spotting one of his Sandshrewmon henchmen down by his ankle. The lackey looked excited about something. "Report!" Sandslashmon snarled, his eyes darting back and forth between the Sandshrewmon and Jennai's abode.  
  
"Sir!" The Sandshrewmon saluted, "We have made an initial recon of the house, and have discovered that both Jennai and the three remaining Digidestined are within." An expression of confusion passed over his angled, narrow features. "However...there appear to be three other children inside as well, children that we are unable to identify."  
  
"Are these, perhaps," Sandslashmon mused aloud, more to himself than to his brainless lackey, "A new set of Digidestined?"  
  
Sandshrewmon nodded vigorously. "It is very possible, sir!"  
  
"Very well." Sandslashmon turned once again to face the ranch, his dark eyes narrowing. "Assemble the men. I want you to lead the initial strike. Flush them out of the house, but *I* want to make the capture personally."  
  
"Yes sir!" The Sandshrewmon scurried off, as eager for battle as Sandslashmon was. The desert division had a reputation for being the toughest of the tough, and it was well earned.  
  
Sandslashmon tried to peer into the window, hoping to catch a glance at the new children. The thought of more Digidestined intrigued him. How would it affect the Master's plan? No matter. They already had six of them, and it appeared that they would soon have six more.  
  
"Gotta catch 'em all." Sandslashmon chuckled softly.  
____________________________________________________________________________  
  
"P-pikachu?"  
  
The small monster that Ash held certainly bore a resemblance to Pikachu, but was much, much smaller. The tiny electric sacs on its cheeks were just beginning to form, as they were supposed to for this creature's "apparent" age, and its tiny thunderbolt tail, as well as the ridge around its tiny, tufted ears, were jet-black. The small creature looked up at Ash with wobbly black eyes and a tiny, toothy grin.  
  
"Pichu! Pi, pichu!" He greeted Ash warmly. The tiny electric mouse reached up, grabbing Ash's nose and tugging on it playfully. "Pii!" he laughed, moving on to pull at Ash's lower lip.  
  
In the meantime, Brock and Misty were trying to figure out exactly what had happened to their own Pokémon.  
  
"Poliwhirl..." Misty held up a tiny blue Poliwag, inspecting the Pokémon carefully to make sure he hadn't been hurt. "You've lost some weight...and your arms..." Poliwag giggled, squirming in her grip. A small bit of water dribbled from its beak-like mouth, dropping onto her jeans. "Jeez...you even leak like a baby Pokémon, too."  
  
"I don't think they're in Baby form right now..." Matt shook his head, inspecting the Poliwag more closely. "If I had to guess, I'd say they're at the In-Training level. They look to be a little too big for Baby forms."  
  
"Trust me," Brock groaned from beneath the living boulder sitting atop his lap, "They're more than a *little* too big!" He grabbed the boulder by its tiny, twig-thin arms and tried to haul it off of his lap, but the basketball-sized rock refused to move.  
  
"Geo!" Geodude protested, crushing Brock's legs as it bounced up and down in his lap. "Ge, geodude!"  
  
"D-ahhhhh!" Brock groaned, curling down around Geodude as pain exploded through his lower body. All he could see were stars flashing in front of his eyes as he moaned, shoving Geodude off of his lap. The thick, sentient boulder fell to the floor with a thunk, mumbling grumpily as it rolled over and lifted itself up on its arms. "What happened to my Golem, Jennai?"  
  
Jennai went over to the fallen Pokémon and lifted it up, examining it for any injuries. Considering the digital warrior's size, it was nothing short of amazing that the old timer could even move Geodude, much less pick it up. "I'm afraid that, in order to digitally convert your Pokémon, it was necessary to reduce them to their simplest forms of evolution. If I hadn't changed them into what you see now, they could never have interfaced with your Pokévices."  
  
"Oh, well that just makes perfect sense." Ash nodded vigorously. "But, uh, just for Misty's sake," he rubbed the back of his neck, "Why don't you explain to us just what a Poké-whatsit actually is..."  
  
"Hey!" Misty cried out, "As if you understood anything that creepy old guy said either!"  
  
"Children, please!" Jennai tried to calm Ash and Misty. He managed to get them to quiet down, but they still continued to glare at each other. "The Pokévices were created to interface with and enhance your Pokémon's' natural evolutionary properties." He grabbed hold of Ash's wrist, examining the device strapped to his arm carefully. "It still seems functional, even after your trip through the gate. Excellent!"  
  
"This thing? You mean the thing that fell from the sky can make Pika...I mean, Pichu...It can make him evolve?" Ash stared down at the device with new wonderment, pulling his hand away from Jennai's wizen grip slowly. The machine patiently awaited any sort of input, remaining still until needed for something. "How does it work?"  
  
Matt spoke up, pulling out his own Digivice. A small pang of loneliness and sadness flew past his features as he remembered that the piece of extradimensional technology was functionally useless without Gabumon. "Well," he started, thumbing the device's control face to activate it, "If your Pokévice is anything like our Digivice, it'll only work if you really need it to." Memories flashed past his mind's eye, back to the times when he and his friends first entered the world...back to simpler times, when they had no idea what was happening to them. Seadramon's wrath had brought forth Gabumon's evolution, creating Garurumon and sending the fearsome sea serpent packing. It had been the first miraculous change in both Gabumon and Matt, but it hadn't been the last. Now, though, he didn't even know if his partner was still alive.  
  
"How does it know when things get really rough?" Brock inquired, picking Geodude back up and setting the massive Pokémon next to him on the sofa, between himself and Matt.  
  
This time, Kari spoke up with the answer. "Actually...we don't know." She shrugged, pulling out her upgraded D-3. She, too, took a brief trip down memory lane before continuing on. "The Digivices have always been a sort of mystery to us...we're not sure where they came from, or how they work. All we know," she replaced the Digimon-less device back on her belt, "Is that they've always been there for us, just like our Digimon."  
  
"Except for now..."  
  
Sora's comment placed the room in an eerie silence. Not even Tentomon nor Gomamon, the two most talkative of the destined Digimon, could break the somber tone that the young woman had imposed. She looked at her fellow Digidestined, taking on an air of seriousness. "Let's face it; these new Digimon are tough, tougher than anything we've ever faced. For the first time, we've come up against an enemy we can't handle." Her face lowered as she looked down at her own shoes, unable to stare into the bleak expressions of any of her friends, new or old.  
  
"C'mon, Sora..." Matt got up and walked over to her, placing a soft hand on her tense, sinewy shoulder. "I'm supposed to be the group's realist, remember?" He got closer, whispering in her ear. "Tai and the others wouldn't want us to give up. Besides, these three kids have come a long way, and left their whole world behind, just to fight for us. We have to have faith in them, and in Jennai."  
  
She batted his hand away, tears beginning to well up in her eyes. "No!" she cried, getting up. Gomamon and Agumon scrambled to escape her trampling, clumsy feet as she stormed hysterically to the window, staring out at the bleak vista of the dried lakebed. "Stop being stupid, all of you! There were nine of us at that fortress, and we were all fighting at our best. What chance do you think three fresh-faced kids can do against an entire army of these super-Digimon?" Her forehead dropped against the glass, tears streaking down her cherubic cheeks. "We're all dead, and we don't even realize it."  
  
There was a long pause, before Ash opened his mouth and gave his best attempt at a pep talk.  
  
"Oh, will you put a damn sock in it?"  
  
"Huh?" Sora couldn't believe that this...this child!...was talking to her like that. She turned, anger beginning to well up and replace the sense of foreboding dread inside of her heart. "Listen, loudmouth-"  
  
"No, you listen!" Ash jabbed his finger at her, holding Pichu in his other arm. He rose from the couch and made his way around the other furniture, coming up behind her. "You people have been going on about how awful this army of Digi-whatsits is, and how we're all doomed, as if you've already lost the fight!" He placed Pichu on his shoulder, letting the tiny mouse cling to his battered league cap. "Well, let me tell you something, girly. My friends and I have been through a couple of bad scrapes of our own. We're not quite as green as you seem to think when it comes to rough-and-tumble fighting, and we're not afraid of some stupid monsters inside of a computer."  
  
"You'll be singing a different tune when they come for all of us, twerp." Sora shoved him away from her angrily, her tears still flowing like tiny rivers of agony and angst. "They'll come for you, your Pokémon, your friends...and once they're done with us, they'll take everything we care about."  
  
"Let 'em come, then!" Ash clenched his hands into fists, getting back up into Sora's face. "I'm not afraid!"  
  
"Pi! Pichu!"  
  
And so they came.  
  
The gorgeous bay windows of Jennai's fantastic underwater ranch (sans water at the moment, of course) burst inward with an invisible force, knocking Ash and Sora flat on their duffs and showering the room's occupants with shards of razor glass. Before Ash, Sora, or even little Pichu got the chance to move or speak, dozens of tiny black silhouettes darted into the room, pouncing upon the Digidestined, their mismatched Digimon, and their Poké-world counterparts.   
  
Ash managed to pick up one of the things that had latched onto his arm and throw it violently into the wall, getting his first good look at the beast. It was small, though not as small as his Pichu, with hard, rocky skin, a soft white underbelly, and deadly claws tipping each appendage. A pair of dark, beady eyes glared back at Ash from beneath the organic armor.  
  
"These things are Sandshrew!"  
  
"You recognize them?" Tentomon screeched, beating his wings and flying upward as he tried to get away from the malicious desert rats' blitzkrieg. "I've never seen anything like them before, and I'm a walking Digimon database!" One of the creatures leapt onto his back, forcing him down to the floor with a violent thump.  
  
"Sandshrewmon, actually." The creature hissed at him, raking Tentomon's hard exoskeleton with its dagger claws. The claws left long, painful welts, but didn't do any lasting damage to the technocolored beetle. "Prepare to fry, weakling!"  
  
Another of the Sandshrewmon had managed to corner Gomamon against Jennai's easy chair, sneering maliciously at the aquatic Digimon. "That's it!" Gomamon proclaimed, "I'm through playing around with these new kids. Ocean Claw!" Sweeping his oversized foreclaw around, he smacked the Sandshrewmon clean off of its feet, sending it tumbling back a few paces. However, the move also left his sensitive skin searing, screaming in pain after striking the sinister monster on its diamond-hard exoarmor. "Yow-ow-ow! These suckers are tough!"  
  
"Pepper Breath!" Agumon tried to keep a pair off of Matt and Brock, spraying an oncoming onslaught with red-hot fire. Every time the Rookie-level hero took down one, three more took the fallen one's place. "And they just keep coming! I don't think we can keep this up!"  
  
"We have to!" Ash gritted his teeth, kicking one of the Sandshrewmon off of his leg. "If we can't beat them here, then we'll never beat them at all. We have to make a stand, right-Pichu!"   
  
Pichu leapt from his grip, flying at one of the Sandshrew. The tiny mouse latched onto the larger rodent's face, effectively blinding it. Before the Sandshrewmon could scrape off they tiny yellow annoyance, Pichu began to glow with a golden light, sparking at the cheeks. "Thundershock!" he squeaked, lighting up with a powerful electric shock that traveled through Sandshrewmon's body, frying its nervous system and sending it collapsing to the ground.  
  
Ash stood, gaping as his Pokémon leapt off of the fallen Digimon attacker. Sora, standing next to him, was twice as amazed. She pulled away from the Pichu, unsure of what the lemon-colored mouse was capable of. "H-he took out a Rookie...when he was only In-T-Training..." she stuttered, "All on h-his own!"  
  
Geodude took one look at Pichu, then exchanged a knowing look with Poliwag. Together, the two tiny Pokémon leapt down to the floor and straight into the mix. Shoving Agumon aside, the living boulder wrapped its arms around the circumference of its body. "Rolling Tackle!" With a grunt, Geodude pushed off and sped towards a thick column of Sandshrewmon, striking them with such a force that they went flying every which way, landing in individual heaps.  
  
"Bubblebeam!" Poliwag, in the meantime, had been spewing bubbles at the Sandshrewmon. The tiny, silvery packets of water smacked into their faces, blinding them and confusing them. "Poli!" Misty's Poliwag caught one of the tiny, malevolent rodents straight in the eye, causing it to shriek in pain and clutch at its face. "Poliwag!"  
____________________________________________________________________________  
  
Sandslashmon stared intently at the broken windows, listening to the intense cries and screams of the battle inside. From what his ears could discern, it was not going well for his side, not well at all. At one point, one of his lackeys was actually thrown from the room, riding a stream of radiant, wobbly spheroids and tumbling out onto the sandy ground below. The grizzled warrior grunted, narrowing his eyes. "Lieutenant!" he barked.  
  
"Yes sir?" One of the Sandshrewmon stepped forward. The only thing that distinguished this one from the other gaggle of creatures was a long, dark scar that ran from the tip of its nose all the way to its back. Sandslashmon's lieutenant had been with him since the Creation, and had obliterated nearly as many weakling Digimon as he had himself.  
  
"Lieutenant, take the rest of your men into the fray. I had hoped that a single assault group could handle a small group of children and their Rookie Digimon..." his disappointed tone wasn't lost on his Lieutenant, nor was his sarcasm and undercutting warning, "But it appears that we will require our *full* forces."  
  
"Yes sir. I'll deploy the men straight away."  
____________________________________________________________________________  
  
Matt gritted his teeth, shoving off a pair of the Sandshrewmon from his legs as he fought alongside Agumon and Kari. "The new kids seem to be holding their own with these suckers."  
  
Kari caught a sideways glance of Pichu as it latched onto and promptly fried another of the Sandshrewmon. "Holding their own? Matt, these kids are mopping 'em up!" She gave one of the Sandslashmon a swift kick in its soft underbelly, sending it screeching as it flew back into the couch. "Keep it up, guys, we've almost got them!"  
  
"Uhhh..." Ash looked out the window, swallowing the rising bile in his throat. "You might want to reconsider that last one, Kari..." His eyes widened at the sight of another squad of the despicable creatures, three times the number of the one they were fighting. Their leader gave out a shrill war cry as they tumbled down the edge of the cliffs into the dry lakebed.  
  
"Death to the Digidestined!"   
  
"That is *NOT* a friendly sound!" Misty slammed two of the Sandshrewmon together, gulping in fear. That polished off the last of the enemy's initial attack, but the new force was approaching them quickly, and they were already tired.  
  
Brock leaned over, his breath coming out in short, gasping gulps. He shook his head, stumbling over to Ash as the young boy stared out the window in horrified shock. "It looks like this is the end, guys." He grimaced in pain as the stitch in his side flared up. "I have a confession to make...I was the one who ate all of the peanuts out of the trail mix last month."  
  
"That was you?" Ash couldn't believe it. "I thought you hated peanuts..."  
  
"Guys, could we *please* get back to the matter at hand here?" Kari rubbed her temples. Honestly, what was it with guys? Were they just naturally stupid, or was it something in all of the red meat they ate? She looked over at Matt, who looked even more pale than usual. "What do we do now, Matt?"  
  
"You're asking me?" he sounded shocked. Truth be told, he didn't have anything that even resembled an idea. His anger flared inwardly, cursing his own inadequacies. As much as he hated to admit it, he was not the leader Tai was. If it had been possible, he would have sold his soul to the devil then and there if it meant that his friends...*all* of his friends...would be safe from this terrible threat. There were no sulfurous red deities in the neighborhood at the moment, though. It was all riding on his shoulders, for some reason. "Uh...I guess we'll have to stand and fight."  
  
Sora shivered, her mind buzzing and whirling. The entire room seemed to be spinning as she lost control, diving into a blend of past and present. "It's happening again..." she murmured, sinking to her knees. "It's happening all over again..." Sora's eyes went blank, lolling about in her head. Her lips seemed to move independently of her conscious though, which had walked calmly out the door and had slipped down the street for a friendly drink at the neighborhood pub.  
  
Clenching his fists tightly, Ash glared at the small, oncoming army. "Bring it on!" he shouted loudly at them, "I'm not afraid! I'll take you down just as easily as your cousins, you shell-headed freaks!"   
  
As he shouted, his Pokévice began to beep and quiver, humming on his wrist as it began to activate. "Wha...what's this thing doing? Is it going into overload, or something?" He brought the device in front of his face, examining the display. The graphic had switched over to a small series of bars, which had nearly reached the top of the tiny screen. Bit by bit, the bar grew larger, until finally the screen exploded in a bright flash of light.  
  
Ash jerked his head away, trying to blink away the spots from his tearing eyes. As he did, his gaze inadvertently caught sight of Pichu, fixating on the mouse as it, too, began to glow with a similar light as his newly acquired evolution tool. Brock and Misty watched on in wonderment as their Pokémon, as well as their own Pokévices, began to mimic Ash and his Pichu.  
  
"Pichu..." the yellow thundermouse rose into the air, rotating slowly. He was little more than an inverted silhouette, a being of pure light that hung above the floor through sheer force...where that force was coming from was anyone's best guess. It was the same power that had aided the Digidestined for years in their fight against the forces of darkness, a power that had now entered the new soldiers of the Digiworld.  
  
"Pichu..." the tiny mouse squeaked.  
  
"Poliwag..."  
  
"Geodude..."  
  
"Pokévolve to..."  
"Pokévolve to..."  
"Pokévolve to..."  
  
The three Pokémon erupted in individual flashes of pure white light, blinding human and Digimon alike. When the glow had faded, three new Pokémon stood in their places, larger and more powerful than their predecessors. One was an immense boulder, standing on two squat, thick legs of living stone, with four limbs protruding from its spherical armored body. Another was a short, round-bodied beast, with a snowy, swirled belly and large, bulbous eyes jutting out of the top of his head. The third was the smallest of all, a yellowish rodent with soft, golden hair and long, black-tipped ears jutting out of a tiny, silly little head.  
  
"Pikachu!"  
  
"Poliwhirl!"  
  
"Graveler!"  
  
"H...Hah..." Ash was speechless. His mouth opened and closed slowly, but words never came out as he stood there, stupefied at what had just happened. Pikachu shook his head, as if clearing the wooziness from his brain, then leapt into Ash's arms, laughing. All Ash could do was hold the giggling Pokémon at arm's length, unable to move, unable to speak. "Hah...hohhh...how..."  
  
"T-they evolved?" Kari bent down to meet Poliwhirl eye to eye, slowly reaching out to the Pokémon. The young girl began to stroke him gently between his large eyes, grinning as she did. "Wow. These guys made it to Rookie level...and a lot faster than our Digimon ever did!"  
  
"Oh, sure," Tentomon whined, still hovering over them, "The new guys evolve right away, and suddenly everyone forgets about the old-school gang." As usual, no one paid too much mind to the oversized bug's complaints.  
  
Matt rubbed his chin thoughtfully, sizing up the situation. The new arrivals had held their own against higher-level Digimon, and now they had evolved faster than any Digimon he had ever seen. "We just may have a chance at this thing..." he mused.  
  
"Heads up, guys!" Ash warned them. "Here they come!" Pikachu leapt down from his arms, snarling at the Sandshrewmon as they reached the threshold of the window and began piling in. In half of a heartbeat, the room was once again swarming with clawed, armored beasts that roared and slashed at the children at every turn.  
  
"Grav!" Graveler crossed two of its arms, trying to shield itself from a particularly nasty pair as they clawed at it fiercely. Finally fed up, Graveler roared in anger and snagged the duo in its other two arms, gripping each one with thick, oversized fingers. "Seismic Toss!" Drawing the pair back, Graveler hurled them straight and true, throwing them so hard that they actually flew across the room and crashed through the wall, leaving jagged tears in the drywall and wooden siding as they passed.  
  
"Woah!" Gomamon cried out in awe, trying to beat off several of his own bothersome foes. "That's one way to get rid of uninvited houseguests!"  
  
As Graveler began tossing Sandshrewmon left and right, Poliwhirl and Pikachu were making short work of whatever their rocky comrade missed. They stood back to back, firing off bolts of lightning and short blasts of pressurized water, respectively, and began clearing the room of any opposition.  
  
"Thunderbolt!"  
  
"Watergun!"  
  
Bam! Blam! Another two down. Already, the Sandshrewmon were beginning to realize that they were losing the battle. By this time, they had already lost half of their forces, and the other half didn't know up from down. One of the Sandshrewmon, a particularly strong one with a long, jagged scar, screamed an order for a retreat just before Graveler snagged him and chucked the Digimon out the window.  
  
"We've got them on the run, guys!" Ash yelled excitedly as the attack force (those that were still conscious) poured out the window, stepping on each other and shoving one another out of the way. "Let's finish 'em off!"  
  
"Ash, wait!" Misty cried out, but it was too late. Ash, already drunk with battle-lust, leapt out the window after the Sandshrewmon with a howling battlecry, shouting curses and insults at them as he chased after the sand rodents. Pikachu leapt after him, shooting out of the window like a bullet from the muzzle of a gun as the tiny powerhouse raced after his trainer. Misty simply shook her head, climbing up onto the windowsill. "God, they are such a pair of idiots."  
  
"Let's get 'em!" Gomamon called out to his 'brothers', jumping up onto the sill. He very nearly knocked Misty out of the window as he did so, landing amongst the broken glass and skidding out the open portal. "Charrrrrrge!" Agumon and Tentomon were right behind them, eager for their own piece of the action. After the defeats they had suffered from the terrible new Digimon, the thought of payback was more than a little appealing.  
  
Sora exchanged glances with Misty, giving her an apologetic shrug. "Looks like it's contagious." she remarked.  
  
The redhead sighed, cracking her aching knuckles. "Well, we can't just stand around and let them get killed, can we?"  
  
"Nope."  
  
"C'mon." Pushing off, Misty followed the rest of her troupe out of the high-traffic window, with Poliwhirl quick to follow. Sora, Brock, Kari, and Graveler were quick to follow, with the large Pokémon going out behind the three humans. It nearly got stuck in the small width of the window, but managed to widen the frame a bit as it wiggled through, grunting as it did so. Matt glanced back, asking Jennai if he was to come out onto the battlefield as well.  
  
Jennai was nowhere to be found.  
  
____________________________________________________________________________  
  
"That's right!" Ash jeered, picking up rocks and hurling them at the receding hindquarters of the Sandshrewmon. "You'd better run, losers! Tell all your friends about me! Ash Ketchum, the new Digimon Champion!"  
  
"Pika!" Pikachu sent a few stray volts at them to accompany Ash's rocks, yelling out its own taunts and insults. "Pikachu, pika, piiii!"  
  
Misty's shrill voice called his attention back. "Ash, you moron, that's enough!" She skidded to a halt on the sandy ground, her tennis shoes sliding before coming to a stop next to his. "I think they get the message. Let's not push our luck."  
  
"Push our luck?" he laughed. "Oh, please. We already mopped the floor with those guys. What are they going to do to us?" As he laughed, a dark shadow grew over the pair and their Pikachu companion, blotting out the sun high overhead. Noticing the sudden darkness, Ash looked upward, seeing a dark form moving up on the ridge.  
  
"DIGIDESTINED!" A large, dark voice boomed from high above. The Digidestined and their Pokémon allies could feel their bones quaking with the force and the volume of the tone. The dark shadow leapt downward, impossibly quick, and landed in front of Ash, Misty, and Pikachu, sending tremors through the ground as the rest of their friends ran to join them in the fight. This new warrior was a good deal larger than any of the Sandshrewmon, though he bore a passing resemblance to his underlings. He possessed large, jagged spikes that ran all about his outer shell, rows of them that shifted on his back and lined his rough, rocky knuckles. "I am Sandslashmon, emissary of The Master. You have one chance to surrender."  
  
"Oh fudge." Ash murmured, his face growing pasty and pale with fear and his feet glued on the spot. Try as he might, he couldn't run in terror, though his legs were screaming at the rest of his body to do exactly that.  
  
Misty elbowed him, backing away slowly and grabbing hold of Ash to pull him away as well. "You were saying, Mr. 'Digimon Master'?"  
  
"Well?" Sandslashmon growled, taking another step closer. The ground shook with each work, and with each step there was a veritable earthquake. "What is your answer?"  
  
"Pikachu," Ash gulped, "Light this guy up."  
  
"Pika!" Pikachu hopped between Ash and the fearsome Digimon, glaring at him with pure hatred leaking from his black, wobbly eyes. "Thunderbolt!" A jagged, golden streak of lightning lanced out of Pikachu's body and struck Sandslashmon squarely in his armored chest. Sandslashmon staggered slightly, as if a strong breeze had suddenly sprang to life, and quickly regained his balance. A look of annoyance passed over his features as he brought his foot back and swiftly kicked Pikachu high into the air, sending the mouse tumbling end over end and smacking into the side of Jennai's ranch.  
  
"If that is your answer, then we shall do this *my* way." With a roar of fury, he brought his fist back, ready to strike. Before he got the chance, though, a small beam of water struck him in the face, blinding him. "Bah, what is this mockery?" he snarled, trying to block the water shot with a massive hand. "I will crush you all!"  
  
"Poli!" Poliwhirl kept the Watergun going, but was beginning to show the slightest signs of fatigue, as well as some pretty serious dehydration. It was clear that the mutated tadpole would not be able to keep up the attack for long. "Poliwhirl."  
  
Matt saw their brief window of opportunity, and tried to organize his friends as best as he could. "We have to move!" he cried, planting a hand firmly on Kari's shoulder and steering her in the opposite direction. Silently, he vowed to watch over the young girl for as long as Tai was away. It was just as Tai had always done whenever he hadn't been able to be there for TK, and it was the least of what he owed his friend. "C'mon, let's go!"  
  
"No!" Ash argued weakly, even as Misty dragged him away. "No, we can't go! We have to stand and fight, or we're history!"  
  
Misty forcefully whirled him around, grabbing hold of his shoulder and shaking him with adrenaline-powered terror. "Have you gone completely off your nut?" she screamed, trying to jostle some sense into him. "That *THING* over there wants to grind our bones to make his bread, and you want to fight???"  
  
Ash was about to retort, but stopped himself as a tiny voice of reason awakened inside of him. It was nothing short of amazing, considering that the small pseudo-conscience had remained silent for nearly a decade now, allowing him to embark upon act after dangerous, stupid act. Now, though, it was in full bloom, screaming at him with a force greater than Misty could ever hope to achieve. 'GET OUT OF HERE, YOU IDIOT! WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?' the voice, after so long a silence, seemed to have saved up every ounce of volume it could ever hope to muster for this very moment. 'THAT MONSTER IS GOING TO BITE YOUR FREAKING HEAD OFF AND EAT IT! RUN! RUN LIKE THE WIND!'  
  
Ash never really did like that voice.  
  
"Take your hands off of me." Ash said in a low tone, so that only Misty could hear him. He locked his gaze with hers, casting rays of anger at her sea-blue eyes with his own amber irises. "Now."  
  
"Ash," she murmured, "If this is about us..."  
  
He gently lifted her hands off of his shoulders, letting them drop down at her sides. "There is no 'us', remember?" Turning away from her, he marched towards the furious Sandslashmon, leaving her in his wake of rage. She just stared at his receding form, breathless. Never before had she seen him like this, like some sort of embittered soldier. It frightened her, not because of what he might do, but because of what might happen to him.  
  
"Ash...Ash!"  
  
"Hey, you!" Ash hollered, pointing angrily up at Sandslashmon. By now, the armored warrior had Poliwhirl gripped tightly in his hand, and was slowly squeezing the life out of the tiny limbed tadpole. Sandslashmon snorted, looking down at Ash as the teen stormed at his feet. "Yeah, you, you ugly son of a bitch! I'm talking to you! You think you're so tough? I've seen monsters in my world that would make you look like a wind-up toy!" He picked up a hefty rock and tossed it at Sandslashmon's leg. The rock pinged off of the warrior's armor, falling harmlessly at his feet.  
  
Sandslashmon snorted, dropping the battered Poliwhirl and advancing on Ash, venom seeping into his eyes. "The Master will not require you, new one." he rumbled coldly. "I will enjoy digesting the meat from your broken body."  
  
Ash backed up, praying that Poliwhirl wasn't dead. He tried to lead Sandslashmon away from his friends, back towards Jennai's house. "That's right, bright-eyes. Come on back. Just you and me this time." Silently, he prayed for some sort of plan to enter in to his empty head. At the moment, all he could think of was protecting his friends, and trying to guess at just how many pieces Sandslashmon would tear him into before finally eating him. So far, the count was up to fifteen. "Hey! Right here, ugly!"  
  
Pikachu finally managed to pick his broken body up off of the ground, squeaking in pain as his muscles protested loudly. "Cha..." If the world continued to insist on spinning like that, then he wasn't going to be able to do much. It was Ash's voice, though, that managed to cut through the haze in his brain as his trainer shouted to encourage Sandslashmon towards him. "Pika!" Shoving off of the ground, Pikachu stumbled off, crying out as he tried to save Ash.  
  
"Pikachu?" Ash looked over with a mixture of horror and relief as his partner made his over for a big comeback fight. He was all right at the moment, but he would probably be a lot more dead if he kept coming Ash's way. "Pikachu, get out of here, now! Go!"  
  
"Pikachu!" The mouse cried out, wobbling towards Ash. No matter what, he had to protect Ash. He knew that much. "Pi...Pika-cha!"  
  
"Bold words." Sandslashmon raised his hand to strike Ash dead, scowling at the boy who dared to defy not only his power, but the awesome might of The Master as well. "This ends now."  
  
Ash would never be sure of what happened next. At first, all he could see was an enormous hand coming down at him, almost ensuring death. He closed his eyes, his arms instinctively shielding his face, as if they would make any difference after Sandslashmon made pizza out of him. Then, from the sidelines, came a flash of blinding white light, painful to look at even through his eyelids.  
  
"Pikachu..." his partner's voice sang out, "Pokévolve to..." The ground seemed to shake, as if a giant were playing hopscotch, as little Pikachu's voice changed and warped. At that point, Ash noticed that he hadn't been turned into a two-dimensional pancake. Cautiously, he opened one eye, fully expecting to see Sandslashmon's hand still coming down upon him.  
  
He was floored when, instead of death, he saw Sandslashmon struggling with another monster, a new monster that equaled him in stature. It was an enormous rat. It was Ratzilla! The new monster, whatever it was, looked painfully familiar to Ash. He had never seen a Pokémon in this proportion before...aside from Sandslashmon, of course.  
  
"Raichu!" The monster snarled, grappling with Sandslashmon's arm, pulling it away from his trainer. With impossible force, the towering Raichu got underneath the bulk of Sandslashmon's weight and heaved him with a modified judo throw, tossing the dark Digimon away from Jennai's beautiful (if slightly-damaged) ranch. "Rai, rai rai!"  
  
"Impudent mouse!" Sandslashmon roared with fury, picking himself up off of the desert lakebed and charging at Raichu with all the speed his heavy legs could muster. "Now you die!"  
  
Raichu held his ground. Rather than take any sort of defensive stance, instead he concentrated his energy, his cheeks beginning to spark and shine. The air around the enormous mouse became superheated, turning the sand red-hot. Ash backpedaled from his Pokémon, knowing full well what came next. "For the love of God," he screamed in terror, "Everyone cover your eyes!"  
  
He had shouted the advice just in time, for Raichu's attack was ready. Electricity began to emanate from his body, surrounding him in a heavenly light that sizzled and popped. "Thunder!" With a double-charge of his arms, he sent a blinding bolt of pure energy blasting into Sandslashmon. The dusty rodent screamed and writhed in agony. His eyes burned away, replaced by the horrible, beautiful thunderous light. In one final, glorious blast of light and sound, the Champion-level soldier vanished in a hail of photons and pixels.  
  
"Wow..." Ash was breathless as Raichu, too, was engulfed in light. Rather than dying, though, the Pokémon began to shrink, readjusting itself until he was back into a regular Pikachu's body. The trainer stumbled forward, laughing as he scooped up Pikachu. The Pokémon appeared to be dizzy, and very, very confused, but okay nonetheless. "Pikachu, that was amazing! That was fantastic!" He paused, rubbing his friend behind the ears. "What the hell was that, anyway?"  
  
"He..." Matt huffed, leading the pack as they ran up to meet the victorious Pikachu and his foolhardy trainer. "He digivolved...or whatever...into a Champion level!"  
  
"That was incredible!" Agumon grinned, "I've never seen anything like it."  
  
"Champion level this quickly? It's never been done." Gomamon agreed, shaking his fringed head with amazement. "Looks like the new kids pick up real quick, huh?"  
  
Kari, as usual, was more concerned than elated. "Is everything okay? Are you guys all right?" She began poking and tugging on Ash in various places, trying to see if any of his bones had been broken.  
  
Ash caught Misty's line-of-sight, trading looks with her for a moment. She turned away, an unreadable expression on her face.  
  
"Everything's fine." Ash said, not taking his eyes of Misty. "Just fine."  
____________________________________________________________________________  
  
"Now, my young friends," Jennai cautioned the Digidestined and the Trainers, "The journey will undoubtedly be dangerous. I want you to promise to be careful, and to write me at least three times a day."  
  
Matt grinned, hefting the field pack that the old warrior had given him and the rest of the children. He knew that Jennai was half-kidding about the last part. Both of them undoubtedly wished that there was some way to keep in contact, but that was impossible without Izzy's laptop, or anything similar to it. Their D-Terminals had remained inoperable ever since the threat had come, and probably would be that way until the darkness was once again driven out of the Digital World. "We'll be fine, Jennai. Thanks."  
  
"I want you to see to their safety personally, Matt." The digital being gave him a stern nod, placing a hand on Matt's arm. "They're counting on you to lead them."  
  
"Me? No, I can't." Matt pulled away, eyes immediately darting to the ground. He was no leader, he was a musician. "I'll never be able to replace Tai, Jennai."  
  
"No one's asking you to, my boy. We just need someone to..." he sought the right choice of words for a moment, rubbing his thick mustache, "Play backup for him while he's away."  
  
"Backup?" Matt still wasn't sure. "I...I guess I can try."  
  
"That's the spirit!" Jennai gave him a hearty slap on the back as the others filed out of the ranch house, packs firmly on their backs and a monster at each of their feet. "So, are we all set?"  
  
"We're as ready as we'll ever be." Brock nodded, giving a half-hearted grin. "Is that everything?"  
  
"Actually, I have one last gift for you. Bend down, if you would." Brock gave him a quizzical look, but did as he asked. "You two as well, please." he indicated Misty and Ash. They both dropped to one knee, too curious to fuss. "Now," Jennai mumbled, searching his person for some sort of object, "Where did I put those? Ah!" Reaching in to his robes, he pulled out three oddly shaped necklaces, each with a small tag on the end. In the middle of each tag was a darkened rectangle beneath a layer of glass. "Put these on."  
  
Ash took the necklace from Jennai, slipping it over his hatted head. "Nifty." he quipped. "What is it?"  
  
The three Digidestined were in awe, wide-eyed with amazement as Jennai handed them each a token of great power. "The crests..." Sora whispered softly, putting a hand to her mouth.  
  
"Crest, huh?" Misty said, inspecting her tag carefully. "Don't crests have some sort of pattern on them? This one's all dark."  
  
"Mine, too." Brock added.  
  
Jennai smiled, motioning for them to stand once again. "All will be revealed to you in time, children. For now, though, you must go. It is a long journey, and the perils are many. Be on your guard, and watch over one another."  
  
"You're not coming with us?" Ash asked. The old man merely laughed in response, shaking his head.  
  
"I'm an old man, my boy, and this virus in my creaking old back gives me an awful ache just at the mention of a trip." He walked back towards the house, still chuckling. "No, I shall remain here, and keep watch over your other Pokémon."  
  
"Will you be all right on your own?" Agumon spoke up from his place by the children's legs, tilting his head in question. He loved the old man dearly, and feared for his life.  
  
Jennai turned back one last time, a glint of foreboding in his old eye. "They aren't after me, my friend. They want you." With that, he entered the house and closed the door behind them, leaving the Digital heroes more confused than before.  
  
"This all still doesn't feel real yet." Misty commented as they began making their way for the enormous staircase that led out of the dried lake. "It's just too weird...it feels like a dream, or something."  
  
"Give it time." Matt warned her. "Soon enough, it'll feel like a nightmare."  
  
TO BE CONTINUED...  



End file.
